iTunes burning corrupted audio CDs

R

riddle

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Problem: About 50% of the audio CDs I burn are corrupted. Specifically, somewhere around the middle of the playlist the audio quality degrades and tracks play with pauses in a way that suggests problems reading the disc. The same symptom occurs in my Mac's own drive and in a regular CD player. The other 50% of the CDs seem to be fine. I don't see a pattern in which ones are bad.

This is in iTunes 4.7 with all updates on a PowerBook G4 running Mac OS X 10.3.6. The CD-R's are cheap but name-brand TDKs. I used about 30 of the 50-disc package before the problem started. I'm using the "Maximum Possible" speed setting in iTunes.

Is this a known problem with iTunes or with PowerBook CD drives? Or does it suggest a bad batch of discs? Would going to a lower burning speed help? If so, how low?

Thanks!

-- Prentiss Riddle riddle@io.com http://aprendizdetodo.com
 
I have found that burning at maximum possible speed (in my case, 8x) causes problems with audio CDs. Usually total coasters in my case. Data CDs haven't been a problem, don't know why.

Turning the speed down to the second highest speed (in my case, 4x) the audio CDs are find most of the time (as good as you can expect burning CDs - there's still the odd dud).

Experiment, I guess. See where you hit a good balance between too slow and getting impatient, and too fast and getting too many duds.
 
riddle said:
Is this a known problem with iTunes or with PowerBook CD drives? Or does it suggest a bad batch of discs? Would going to a lower burning speed help? If so, how low?
Click to expand...
I have encountered bad batches of CD-Rs or bad CD-Rs in a batch in the past. Particularly the bargain priced house brands. Supposedly CD-Rs that are rated at a give burn speed have been tested at that speed, but cheap CD-Rs sometimes skimp on the sampling or just ignore it altogether. Burning at a lower speed may work if the CD-Rs are marginal at your highest burn rate. Since half of the CDs work then I would try the next lower burn rate. You might also try a different, more expensive, brand of CD-R. Generally you pay for what you get.

One other thing, CD-RWs are often more subject to errors like this than CD-Rs.
 
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